Saturday, April 7, 2012

2012 Masters Round 2 Update and Round 3 Tee Times

Today was crazy! I really thought we'd see a few golfers separate themselves and frankly some of them did, but just in the opposite direction. The co-leaders are now -5 for the tournament and they include a legend and a relatively new face. I'm talking about the ageless (52 to be exact) Freddy Couples and Jason Dufner. You can catch round 3 action tomorrow on CBS starting at 3:30pm and live action all afternoon at Masters.com

In a similar position last year, Freddy wore down over the weekend, can he redeem himself at his "advanced" age?

63 golfers will take on Saturday and Sunday in hopes of donning the Green Jacket Sunday evening. Only 1 will take home the prize. Today really belonged to Fred Couples who took the lead into the clubhouse early on in the afternoon. If you watched from 4-8pm, you saw many golfers threaten that leading score but ultimately succumb to the brutal course that is Augusta. In fact, many witnessed Tiger's near complete meltdown before saving himself on the final green.

Favorites:

Phil and Rory really stepped up their games today with a 68 and 69 respectively and sit -2 and -4. Look for Phil to go on an absolute tear tomorrow. Hunter Mahan has shot back-to-back par for the course. Luke Donald and Tiger really crapped the bed today and while both made the cut (-4 and -3), they both are on the outside looking in needing a score in the 60s tomorrow to really get back into it. Tiger will be interesting tomorrow. He'll either just play to break-even or he'll make a legit climb up the leaderboard.

Dark Horses:

A couple of my dark horses really stepped up including Sergio Garcia at -4 and Chucky 3 Stix at -2. Fowler squeezed in but is really disappointing me thus far at +4. Sergio seemed really confident in his interview after his round. I like his attitude and he could be on the prowl for his first major.

No Chance:

I'm going to kill Mr Powers and No Feet for Bubba Watson's -4 and Matt Kuchar's -3. Meanwhile, defending champ Charl finally hit reality and is +3. It's just difficult to repeat this bad boy. Bubba is just tearing it up right meow. Kuchar just plays with a certain looseness that is admirable. Both have legit chances to get into top 5 position by Sunday.

Notables who didn't make the 10 stroke cut of +5:

Tom Watson

Mike Weir

Jose Maria Olazabal

Rory Sabbatini

KJ Choi

Darren Clarke

Lucas Glover

Ryo Ishikawa

Also, last year's runner up Jason Day withdrew early on even though he was at +5. Sissy!

Here are Saturday's Round 3 tee times. These are no longer random. The players are now paired up in 2's by their score with the leaders going last. Watch out for the pairing of Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia as well as Phil Mickelson and 51 year old Vijay Singh. Classic match ups. Let's see if they push each other!